Even in a vegan-embracing city like Portland freaking Oregon, I’ve eaten my share of insignificant hummus plates for dinner.

Sometimes it’s at a company dinner, sometimes it’s at a dive bar; there can be very little choice with the default (can you hold the feta, please?) vegan option.

You want food? You’re eating hummus for dinner, and it’s not part of some impressive mezza platter at a Lebanese restaurant. You wish you were at Nicholas‘. I sure do.

It can be your attempt at a semi-filling snack or a somewhat pathetic entrée to pair along with your beer or cranberry lime spritzer when you’re out for the night and realize you didn’t schedule in dinner. It could be delightfully creamy and well-spiced, with a side of kalamata olives and my beloved crispy, pepperocinis, or it could be bland and accompanied by vegetables you would never introduce to your mom.

There have been many times that my friend Maeve and I have half-joked and half-considered – we’ve even pulled out a notebook – compiling a list of Portland hummus plates. I mean, it could happen, but we tend to eat better than that.

Side-note: I had such a zesty Bloody at Bar Carlo in SE over the weekend. Their Vegan Potato & Black Bean Skillet + a (vegan noted!) Bloody is quite recommended.

Hummus plate, I don’t mean to insult ya.

You’re cost-effective, full of flavorful possibilities, and you know what, you’ve always been there for me.

Please feel free to chime in with your own hummus woes, flavors & stories. I can relate.

_______________________________________________________

Here’s a link to A Hummus Recipe, from Veganomicon. It’s a great base to begin your adventures with, as I did above for a last-minute shindig. Have some roasted peppers sitting around? A handful of basil? Sun-dried tomatoes in the back of the fridge? A sketchy half-jar of olives? Go on…